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Tonight on Medium Cool, let’s talk about the best TV season finales. Next week we can talk about the worst ones!
To get you started arguing, oops, I meant to say thinking – The Ringer has not only selected the 40 best TV season finales, but they have also ranked them! Did they choose the best ones? In some cases, I think not! At least one of the shows on their list will definitely be one of my shows for the “worst” list. I wonder, will I be the only one? I guess we won’t know that until we have done both weeks, the “best” and the “worst”.
Of course, no one needs to actually check out the list at the link; you can all jump right in if you want. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see what we collectively come up with before checking the list at the link, but that’s totally up to each of you.
On your mark, get set, go!
War for Ukraine Day 494: Russia’s Aerial Bombardment Continues
Baud
CSI Cyber, because it was the finale.
Glyph2112
Without looking at the list, Breaking Bad had the best perfect ending to a series. Six Feet under was pretty good. It’s hard because if you really like a show, you always hate to have it end even when you can tell its probably for the best.
TriassicSands
I don’t watch “TV” as such. I don’t have a television and haven’t for a long, long time. But some things are available to stream and I’ve watched some of them.
My basic thought is that ranking is a waste of time. It is a conversation starter, but it’s unlikely anyone’s mind will ever be changed. I looked through the list and of the things I have seen, two things stood out.
One, the Sopranos last episode was not the best last episode. Not even close. (But that’s just and opinion, not a fact.)
Two, the best final episode I’ve ever personally seen after watching all the previous seasons is, without question, Breaking Bad’s final episode. (Again, an opinion, but nothing else comes close for me.)
I haven’t seen many of the series, in part because, I think a common problem is that most extended series simply go on too long. It would have been better if they’d quit earlier. By the time of the last season, even for series that were once good, they’ve often lost their reason for being. So, I have quit watching any number of series well before their final seasons.
Game of Thrones could win a few “superlatives” however. Most gratuitous sex? GoT. Most gratuitous violence? GoT. Best on-screen dragons? GoT.
oatler
“I’m Alan Partridge” ended with Alan accidentally shooting and killing a guest on his show.
TriassicSands
I have a somewhat different take on that. I am often happy the series is ending, because decline is the norm and very few series can maintain a high level of quality and interest the way Breaking Bad did (for me, anyway). Wading through episodes of a series that was once excellent, but has lost its oomph is something I won’t do. There is too much else to do that doesn’t involve a screen.
But we agree on Breaking Bad.
strange visitor (from another planet)
babylon 5. bc there were two of them, and they were both pretty awesome.
and oh, FFS. the remade BSG was SOOOO stupid and sooo bad and sooo poorly thought out (because it wasn’t, in the slightest). but i guess jimi hendrix makes it ok.
Yutsano
I’ll give the writers credit for including Avatar: The Last Airbender in there, because it is indeed an amazing ending to a series…yet it does feel incomplete. The cycle in the story wasn’t completed. I still say there should have been one more book.
Old School
This is end of season rather than end of series, right?
The one that comes to mind for me is “Best of Both Worlds” for Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
SupernaturalStar Trek: Voyager…sue meETA – I can’t read. Thought this was series finales.
edit: you were right – i meant to write SERIES not season. WG. (putting this note here so that anyone who makes it to comment 9 will see the corruption. WG)
Suzanne
End of season? TNG and the BORG!
ETA: <a href=”#comment-8888773″>@Old School</a>: Great minds, etc.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Yutsano: each season was a book. book of water, earth and fire.
great show though.
Ken
M*A*S*H.
Yutsano
@Suzanne: “Mr. Worf…FIRE!”
Annnd blank screen.
That was one. long. ass. summer!
hilts
While I don’t seek to nitpick, I think a more accurate title for this post would be “Best TV Series Finale” instead of “Best TV Season Finale”.
While I loved the series finales of The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Star Trek: TNG for me the best one has to be The Shield.
Vic Mackey being cut off from his family after they’ve been placed into witness protection, learning of Shane’s murder suicide, seeing Ronnie’s arrest, and then being assigned to a desk job and having to wear a suit each day is a perfect gut wrenching ending to his story.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
“Who Shot Mr. Burns?”
Suzanne
@Yutsano: That was really just a great show.
Yutsano
@strange visitor (from another planet): WHERE’S MY BOOK OF AIR?!? I know the series creators say that was the full story but I don’t buy it.
Glyph2112
Just checked out the list. I have seen most of the shows. Sopranos ending was impactful for how it was handled but absolutely sucked if you were looking for an clue what happened. Stared at a black screen for however long and thought cable had gone out. We super angry after that.
I forgot about the Good Place finally. Very good but man, it still freaks me out on a philosophical level. “I am in heaven but its so perfect I am bored” really threw me.
jackmac
My top finales (and I’m going with SERIES finales):
1. Newhart. (Bob wakes up in bed with his spouse, Emily, from the old Bob Newhart Show).
2. Six Feet Under
3. Breaking Bad
4. Star Trek TNG: Best of Both Worlds
Baud
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Me too.
laura
Newhart
Fleabag
Extraordinary Attorney Woo
dmsilev
@Yutsano: I have a minority view in thinking that the ending to Avatar was a bit of a cop-out. They spent a long time developing a real moral dilemma in regards to how could Aang permanently neutralize the Fire Lord while remaining true to his own ethos, but then at the climax pulled an answer from thin air (so to speak…) by revealing a brand new power of the avatar that let him do both.
soapdish
Any “Best TV Series Finale” list that includes “Lost” can be immediately ignored.
Anyway
Haven’t checked the list and TBH haven’t seen too many series finales — I have commitment issues and rarely watch all the way thro’
Best was Breaking Bad. (Yes, I’m aware that most of BJ hates this show)
Worst — Seinfeld
Gin & Tonic
I am kind of in awe of people who have this sort of encyclopedic knowledge of TV episodes. I haven’t watched much if any TV in years, because of reasons, but in the past I watched a number of series that were popular or well-regarded or both: Hill Street, ER, Homicide, Crime Story, Criminal Intent, Miami Vice, some others. But put a gun to my head and force me to provide a synopsis of even one episode, and I can’t. I think it’s like those people who can give you a game-by-game account of, say, the 1987 World Series. I guess my brain isn’t wired that way.
Percysowner
@strange visitor (from another planet): So glad someone else mentioned B5 and yes BOTH series enders were superb. I also agree with you that the BSG ending was NOT good.
I only saw a few of the ones on the list, so I have not great insights into the other shows endings.
WaterGirl
@Baud:
Chris
All the Leverage season finales were good, largely because they were written as finales. John Rogers has written multiple times that he hates cliffhanger endings and consciously designed the show so that if they weren’t renewed next season, the viewers would have an at least somewhat satisfactory ending.
CaseyL
The article is about series finales, and focused on TV shows that aired after 2001.
There aren’t too many shows I stuck with over their entire run, and there are too many I liked that were cancelled before they could have a “finale.”
The recent series finales I remember most fondly are the ones that were most emotionally traumatizing: The Americans, This is Us (that train ride!)\…my gosh I think that’s about it. I just didn’t watch very much TV even when I had a TV.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Yutsano: i would’ve been content with them wrapping up the story of zuko’s mom, ursa or showing the earth kingdom and water tribes dealing with the end of the fire nation’s invasions but it worked for me.
WaterGirl
@strange visitor (from another planet): What is BSG?
Scout211
I’m just going with my sentimental favorite series finale:
St. Elsewhere
WaterGirl
@Old School: Oops – my bad – I intended to write SERIES finale!
Double oops!
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Worse than Mr. Ed?
strange visitor (from another planet)
@WaterGirl: battlestar galactica. the three episode pilot/ mini series was pretty good, but it became apparent they were making things up as they were going and the quality really started to spiral. it was silly before they made starbuck an angel and jimi hendrix’s all along the watchtower being the secret six cylon’s anthem was pretty stupid. and then it got MUCH dumber from there.
soapdish
@WaterGirl: BSG = Battlestar Galactica.
Also another absolutely terrible series ending. And it was so, so good for a number of years.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Yes. Seriously. It was SO bad.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Ken: THIS.
geg6
Star Trek TNG. No question.
Mike in NC
@WaterGirl: No hate for The Apprentice or Celebrity Apprentice?
Chris
@strange visitor (from another planet):
I think BSG was to my generation what X-Files was to the previous decade. A sci-fi show that a lot of people got so swept up in because of its good parts, it took a while to realize that the producers had absolutely no idea what they were doing with their long-term storyline.
(And then Lost did it again, although that one I never watched; but what I heard sounded familiar in that sense).
geg6
@soapdish:
But perhaps greatest first episode ever.
TriassicSands
You usually seem so measured and reasonable, WaterGirl, but I’d argue that there probably isn’t any such thing as the worst show EVER made, but rather the competition is so fierce that trying to decide on a single show would inevitably lead to madness. I never saw CSI Cyber, but it is really rare for an offshoot to be even close to as good as an original and most originals aren’t very good to begin with. As always, it’s a matter of personal taste.
In the days that I watched television (before 1971), there were lots of shows that were horrendously bad and not very many that would stand any test of time.
However, I will take your comment to heart, and trusting on your judgement, make sure I never watch a single episode of CSI Cyber. If I’m visiting someone and they have it on, I will leave a) the room or b) their home. So, thank you for that. (I probably wouldn’t have ever watched it anyway, but now I’m sure.
ETA: For my money, virtually every reality TV show would be in contention for worst EVER! And I feel I can say that with confidence even though I wouldn’t watch a reality TV show if some billionaire offered by a free trip on his private jet to some exotic land.
West of the Rockies
The finale of Fringe was very good. It was moving, hopeful, and successfully wrapped up a lot of threads. Sacrifice, love, and redemption were front and center.
oldster
@Glyph2112:
The Good Place — amazingly complete and unified set of seasons. After the big twist at the end of Season 1, I wasn’t sure where Season 2 would go. It roared out of the starting blocks, overturning all expectations, getting meta and then meta-meta. No bad episodes, no slow seasons. Ending was perfect.
Matt McIrvin
@strange visitor (from another planet): I preferred the replacement finale at the end of B5’s fourth season to the originally planned finale they aired at the end of the fifth, myself. All that was fallout from the chaos of the show’s premature cancellation and subsequent un-cancellation, but an interesting episode was one of the side effects.
Chris
The first TV show I was really hooked on, Stargate SG-1, I remember having a really solid three-part ending in Season 8, first the two-parter that finally puts an end to eight years of the Goa’uld war, then a more quiet episode where you see Sam’s father passing away, the Free Jaffa Nation being established, and finally a look at that Ancient afterlife/limbo Daniel had come back from…
… The problem being, of course, that it wasn’t a finale. First, the network decided S8 wouldn’t be the end after all as originally planned. Second, it wasn’t even a season finale, they followed it up with one more far more anticlimactic two-parter.
Even at the time I remember thinking it was a great finale that… wasn’t one.
zhena gogolia
Okay, I went to the list but didn’t bother because it’s restricted to the 21st century.
Suzanne
OT: I am trying to get good at doing push-ups. I can do, like, the top half of the push-up fine (probably from many chaturangas in yoga), but it’s really hard to get my chest close to the floor and back up. Ergh.
Matt McIrvin
@geg6: Star Trek: TNG and Deep Space Nine both had great finales.
The original Star Trek didn’t really get a finale at all, and the episode that happened to be last (“Turnabout Intruder”) was a real stinker. Oddly, few people probably saw it on original broadcast–it was preempted by the special report of the death of Dwight Eisenhower, and aired after a long delay in the new timeslot intended for Star Trek reruns.
CaseyL
I liked the BSG finale but did have quite a few issues with it.
I didn’t like that the Final Five were treated with such fanfare, only to be a non-issue at the end – that was a big one. Kind of a bait and switch, I thought.
But the scattering of survivors, and even getting rid of all the tech, made sense to me. These people had been continuously, deeply, viciously traumatized for years and years – by one another, and by tech. Of course they would want to have as little as possible to do with any of it from now on. Though I don’t think many of them survived very long.
TriassicSands
@Mike in NC:
Never having seen either one, I feel it’s reasonable to say that they are not only the worst TV series EVER, but the worst human activities short of war, genocide, and Repubicanism to have ever existed in the U.S. After all, without them, a certain mindless orange blob would probably never have been president. How do you top that?
Scout211
I agree 100%.
zhena gogolia
I liked when Pinky Lee threw a pie at Soupy Sales and it had a brick inside.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Matt McIrvin: yeah. the fourth and fifth seasons were unfortunately truncated due to the problems straczynski was having getting a straight answer from TNT.
Chris
As long as I’m in sci-fi, The Peacekeeper Wars made a decent series finale to Farscape.
“Wormhole weapons do not make peace. Wormhole weapons do not even make war. They make total destruction, annihilation, Armageddon.”
strange visitor (from another planet)
@CaseyL: they probably didn’t survive the first winter. it’s not like they would have the first clue as to how to live off the land or without antibiotics.
S Cerevisiae
My favorite series finales:
Star Trek TNG
Supernatural
M*A*S*H
dmsilev
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, as aired, the fourth season brought the main story arc of Babylon 5 to a (rushed) conclusion and the finale reflected that. The fifth season ended up feeling stretched and somewhat empty by comparison.
Bad TV studios!
(BTW, there’s an animated B5 movie coming soon. Unfortunately a lot of the original cast are now no longer with us, but I think most of the ones who are available are doing voice work for their respective characters)
Mr. Bemused Senior
The Closer, season 2, Serving the King [link is to part 1 of a 2-part episode].
The explanation of the title (at the end of the second half) is great.
I loved that show, although it went a little overboard in season 7.
Quiltingfool
I looked at the list. The only show I watched for all six seasons was Justified. I did think Season 2 with Margo Martindale was the best.
My favorite line from Season 1: “Outlaw life is hard.” (Said by Raylan to Dewy Crowe after he smacks Dewy in the nose with the butt of a shotgun.)
kalakal
The final episode of Ashes to Ashes which not only brilliantly explains Ashes to Ashes but also Life on Mars. My only gripe is I didn’t want the show to end*
Not the US remake of Life on Mars which is a candidate for worst ending ever
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
😹
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Mary Tyler Moore
Larry sanders
Sergeant bilko
Homeland
Blackish
Barney miller
BruceFromOhio
I see there has already been
– a proper trashing of the list
– mention of B5, BSG, ST:DS9, Voyager, and TNG endings, fun flings all and worthy of respect
– mention of Leverage and John Rogers
– appropriate derision of Lost
Mr. Bemused Senior
[you tricked me! OK, for series finale…]
Life
Quiltingfool
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I liked that explanation, too. Have you watched the spin-off, Major Crimes? I think it’s pretty good.
WaterGirl
@Mike in NC: Never seen them. I do not watch so-called reality shows.
Snarki, child of Loki
Brit series “Green Wing”, only two seasons, but each season ended with an ACTUAL “cliff-hanger”.
Gotta admire their dedication to the bit.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Quiltingfool: yes, I liked Major Crimes too, although the ending was meh.
dmsilev
If we’re allowed to do season, not series, finale episodes, let me nominate Andor. The last episode of the first season was just sublime. Hopefully the second season will live up to the high standards set by the first.
Chris
@BruceFromOhio:
TBF to Lost, I’ll always remember the finale. I have no idea what it was like, but I was living in the same city as my sister at the time and we always had dinner the same day every week… which, that day, had us seated and served almost immediately, in contrast to how the restaurant usually was. We and the server were all baffled… until one of us realized everybody was at home watching the Lost finale.
Thanks, fans!
WaterGirl
@TriassicSands: I don’t think of reality TV shows even in the same category as actual shows.
Chris
@dmsilev:
The entire season was amazing. I really wish S2 the best of luck, they have a lot to live up to.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
oops, i forgot:
Scrubs
Glyph2112
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I did like Homeland’s ending.
WaterGirl
@Quiltingfool:
Hard to top that season.
mrmoshpotato
The finales of Six Feet Under and The Good Place were great.
But how is this list existing without the series finale of Cartoon Network’s Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends?
Hilarious episode all based on a misunderstanding with THE GREATEST TWIST EVER right at the end!
“So…..”
I CHEERED!
prostratedragon
@TriassicSands: Don’t forget slavery. But you are certainly right in principle.
Can’t say much about the listing, partly because I can’t rank distinctive things even by my preference, let alone some croterion, and partly because I haven’t seen much series tv. There are several series on the list I’ll catch sometime, but I could only speak for The Sopranos, The Wire, and Twin Peaks. Those are awfully good.
Splitting Image
One of my favourite season finales is the first season of Sledge Hammer!, in which Sledge tries to defuse a nuclear bomb with his usual masculine confidence. The explosion completely levels San Francisco. It would have been one of the best series finales except the show was renewed at the last minute and the second season couldn’t help but be anti-climactic.
Each season of Blackadder had its own ending, usually with the entire cast being killed off in one go. The ending of Blackadder Goes Forth is particularly moving.
Glyph2112
I just remembered Cheers finale. Cannot remember the plot but Sam walking out and turning out the lights was satisfying to me.
Llelldorin
Suisei no Gargantia, particularly:
CHAMBER: Response to final warning: Go to hell, tin can!
Mr. Bemused Senior
Here’s a great last episode: Making Fiends: Pony
HumboldtBlue
I found season 3 of Ted Lasso to be pretty much a disappointment through and through. They tried far too hard to tie up so many loose relationship ends, absurd scenes like Jamie teaching Roy to ride a bike in that waste of a Netherlands episode, a loss of the quick wit and banter that defined the show for the first two seasons and overall just a huge dud following the first two wonderful seasons.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Can you give a brief explanation of what Andor is about?
Quiltingfool
@WaterGirl:
I’ve watched a few, and quit when they got ridiculous. They are certainly not reality.
At least the participants got paid…in Orange County Choppers (yeah, I know, but Mr. Quiltingfool enjoyed watching that show so he could make fun of it, lol) the first few episodes showed father and son didn’t have a fancy truck or trailer and their shop was, meh. Later on, they must have made bucks because they were driving fancy rigs and bought some expensive machinery for fabrication. I don’t know much about motorcycles, but to my untrained eye, every one they built looked the same (except for fancy paint jobs and such).
I don’t know what happened to those guys. I only see them featured in memes!
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: will there be a season 4? or is the show over?
soapdish
@Chris: Re: Lost finale
You won that contest. It’s been, what, 13 years since the finale? And I still seethe every time I think about it.
Adam
@HumboldtBlue: I heard a couple weeks ago that Bill Lawrence wasn’t very involved this year. It explained so much of the quality of the season to me.
Quiltingfool
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Yeah, the ending of Major Crimes was not their best work.
I rather enjoyed the episode with Annie Potts as the astrologer!
Wyatt Salamanca
House, Rescue Me, and The West Wing.
narya
M*A*S*H
The Good Place (I don’t know how many times I’ve watched it, but it affects me every time)
Mary Tyler Moore
St. Elsewhere
I only sometimes watched Bob Newhart, but the series finale was very funny.
Adam
Newhart was the greatest final scene. I loved Veep, because everyone ended up exactly where they should be. But, it’s recency bias likely, I thought Succession was the best ever.
Amir Khalid
The X-Files had a few excellent end-of-season episodes that would each have been a decent transition to a movie series as Chris Carter wanted. But it was treated shabbily by the Fox Network, which was dependent on it for ratings and kept it on the air three or four seasons too many, even after Carter had basically shut down the mythology. The End (season 5) where the X-Files unit was shut down and Scully found herself with a rival for Mulder’s love; Requiem (season 7) where, right after Mulder has been abducted, Scully discovers they are going to have a baby; and Essence/Existence (season 8) where William Mulder is born and his parents celebrate with a TV kiss for the ages.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@WaterGirl: it’s one of the disney+ star wars shows. it’s the origin story of cassian andor, a rebel alliance spy and a major character from rogue one
eta- it’s a story about fascism as seen through the eyes of the oppressed and what it takes to radicalize someone to fight back.
wrog
it is sort of annoying they skipped the 20th century shows:
M*A*S*H — guessing these first two
Newhart — are on *everybody’s* lists
Cheers (“One for the Road”) — and maybe these two, also
St. Elsewhere (“The Last One”) — (c’mon, this one retcons the entire series)
Babylon 5 (“Sleeping in Light”)
Hill Street Blues (“It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over”)
Star Trek (“Turnabout Intruder”) — (**)
also a couple of 21st century ones that really should have made the list:
Lost in Space (“Trust”) — Penny gets her Crowning Moment of Awesome
Stargate: Universe (“Gauntlet”) — worth it just for the score.
.
.
.
.
(**) hahahahahaha, no.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: I was hoping you’d show up!
zhena gogolia
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: You remember the season finale for Sgt Bilko? What happened?
Chris
Ten years behind everybody, been working my way through Elementary and just finished Season 2. It’s a multi-episode finale, but I appreciated the novel take on Mycroft.
(I also appreciated the fact that it may be the first time I’ve ever seen English-language fiction using the proper name for the French mob, “le Milieu.” No, Ian Fleming and the many writers who have taken their cues from him, “l’Union Corse” is not a thing).
cope
As per the 21st Century constraint, Schitt’s Creek. Without, Newhart or Barney Miller.
zhena gogolia
I think I’m realizing that I usually don’t watch series to the end. Mary Tyler Moore may be an exception — I know i watched the last episode (the hug!), but I don’t think I was watching it regularly at that point. I gave up on ER, MASH, etc., long before they were done.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Chris: Elementary is a great show and stays strong all the way through. I thought it was very true to the spirit of the character, and Joan Watson was an inspired update to the story.
UncleEbeneezer
Beef- Assuming there is no second season (there shouldn’t be)
The Americans
Breaking Bad
Newhart
Atlanta (we JUST finished it like an hour ago)
PJ
Better Call Saul
Breaking Bad
HumboldtBlue
@WaterGirl:
It’s done. There have been some very faint rumors of Roy and Keeley and some others in a spinoff, but nothing close to anything concrete.
@Adam:
Something was damn sure missing. It had none of the verve and vigor of the first two seasons, it was almost as if they were rushing to just get something done and finish it all up.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
For some reason I never got much into Newhart’s second show. I saw this scene when Newhart showed it as part of a live performance.
Haven’t seen too many series endings in my life, as there haven’t been too many series I stuck with more than a few seasons. Short attention span I guess. M*A*S*H and Moonlighting are the first two that come to mind. I did watch the series ender of Seinfeld, but I’d never gotten into the show. Just wanted to see what people were talking about.
zhena gogolia
@cope: The final Newhart episode was great, but that series was nowhere near as good as the one with Suzanne Pleshette.
zhena gogolia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Jinx! See my comment above
TriassicSands
@WaterGirl:
I couldn’t agree more. Once again your wisdom shines through. Your comment about CSI Cyber, inspired me to look up the shortest-lived TV shows in history. It’s an amazing list. I never saw any of them (how could I, since three episodes would constitute a long-running success). My personal favorite is “Lawless” starring the erstwhile steroid-using football “star” Brian Bosworth as a detective? It lasted one show, which made that the series finale and thus in the running for worst series finale ever. (Of the ten shows on that list 4 aired on Fox, 3 on ABC, 2 on CBS, and 1 on A & E.)
The show listed as #1 was called “Who’s Your Daddy?” in which an adult contestant who was adopted as a baby would try to guess which of 25 men was their biological father. One show. Major outrage, especially from adoption agencies. Another Fox beauty.
Bryan Bosworth vs. an orphan? What could go wrong?
TriassicSands
@PJ:
Gee, you’d almost think there were related. Better Call Saul would have to be in contention for best spinoff ever.
Amir Khalid
@Quiltingfool:
You are correct. Garish cosmetics aside, the Orange County Chopper bikes were all the same: they were kit motorcycles put together with a crate engine shipped in from Harley-Davidson. The build process was the same for every bike, and you never once saw the Teutuls or their staff grapple with an engineering issue. I suspect that was more than they knew about bikes.
Steeplejack
@Quiltingfool:
The “chopper guys arguing” meme is an Internet classic—one of my favorites.
cope
@zhena gogolia: Absolutely, that’s what I thought was so great about it, bringing Suzanne Pleshette back. That attitude, that voice…
UncleEbeneezer
@PJ: Loved Breaking Bad ending but felt like Better Call Saul finale was way less fulfilling (though still good). BCS finale was like The Wire finale imo. Appropriate. Good, but really nothing special. And there were many better episodes.
Chris
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I’ve seen it complimented by a lot of fans of overall Sherlock Holmes lore for not leaning harder and harder into the “Sherlock Holmes is a dick and kind of a sociopath” trope like so many modern adaptations do, which… I’m pretty sure I’m with them on that.
geg6
I would agree with Mad Men from the shows on that list. I thought it was perfect. The Wire, also. Haven’t watched much from the rest of the list. They are totally wrong about Lost.
raven
We were watching season three of Happy Valley but we had to backtrack and watch it from the beginning because it’s been six years since season two. It’s astounding that they have the same cast and characters from the first two seasons but the end of season two is as heart rendering as anything I’ve ever seen. A woman kills her son, a serial murdered and rapist, and Sarah Lancashire comes to arrest her. The final scene has Lancashire holding the woman on their steps as the mother grieves. Insanely touching scene.
TriassicSands
@prostratedragon:
Slavery. True. I couldn’t provide an exhaustive list but slavery certainly belongs. As I said in a previous comment, I don’t own a TV, so what I’ve caught have been series that streamed. I don’t know if The Sopranos was first, but it has a place of honor and it exemplifies the fact that high quality series can rival high quality films. The advantage of the series is in being able to do more and go into greater depth. The downside, as I mentioned, is that a lot of series go on too long. Knowing when to quit, which actually should come before revenues begin to fall off too much, is important, but ringing every last penny out of an idea is too attractive.
The Wire? Also excellent.
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
Unfortunately, all that arguing for the cameras turned out to be toxic for Paul Sr and Paul Jr’s relationship.
Spanky
@soapdish: “Lost” is my worst ever finale. It cured me of ever getting hooked on a show again, and shortly after we happily canceled our Directv subscription, never to return.
Haven’t watched TV in any of its incarnations since, and don’t miss it.
Steeplejack
@oldster:
It just so happens that I binge-watched all of The Good Place this week, ending last night. An excellent series capped by a superb ending—the last several episodes, not just the final one. There were a few lulls in the series and some spots where the plot machinery clanked just a little bit, but that could be a side-effect of my binge-watching and not spreading it out over time. I’m sure it hit differently to people who watched it in real time and had to wait week after week.
Not really a series-ending episode, but Law and Order: Criminal Intent—the crown jewel of the franchise, in my opinion—had a very satisfying final scene in the last episode, “To the Boy in the Blue Knit Cap.” Goren’s mandated therapy comes to an end (although he will continue to see the therapist to work on his personal demons), and he will get to keep his job. He comes out of his therapist’s office on a quiet brownstone street in Manhattan, and his partner, Eames, is waiting by their gigantic black SUV. They exchange a few words, and she tells him that there has been a bank robbery and that they can probably get there before the feds. They get in the car (she always drove, which I liked), they sit there for a few moments, and then they drive off. Rear shot of the SUV disappearing down the street. An excellent coda to a good series.
Gin & Tonic
@Quiltingfool: What happened? The usual.
raven
Final scene of Happy Valley season two.
UncleEbeneezer
@geg6: So many people HATED the Mad Men finale but I thought it was always very appropriate. That season was far from the best, but I thought they wrapped it up nicely.
zhena gogolia
@geg6: I’m just now watching Mad Men for the very first time. I’m impressed. I wasn’t interested at the time, but it’s perfect for doing P/T! Love Jon Hamm.
Steeplejack
@strange visitor (from another planet):
That reminds me: I have access to Disney+ (among other services) while I’m
housesittingestate-managing at Sighthound Hall, and I want to do some serious catching-up. Does it matter which order in which to watch the various <em>Star Wars</em> series? Any “don’t miss” or “don’t bother”?Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
I am at your service!
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@zhena gogolia: They install security cameras on the base. Bilko brings in a look-alike for Colonel Hall to order the cameras disabled and resumes his gambling activities. But he gets caught, court martialed and sent to prison. Col. Hall has cameras installed in Bilko’s cell with a live feed to his office and he ends the show with a wry quip, “this is my favorite show and it’s never getting canceled.”
I only know this because they ran the series on MeTV.
Come to think of it, Hawaii 5-O borrowed this ending with McGarrett visiting Woo Fat at his prison cell to gloat only for the clever Mr. Fat to pull out a file from his shoe to begin his eventual prison break.
UncleEbeneezer
Oh shit, how did I forget Narcos Mexico? Incredible series and the last episode was fantastic.
On a similar note, the Snowfall finale was really good and I appreciate that they did something that probably would’ve made John Singleton proud. Even if it was definitely NOT a feel-good ending.
Steeplejack
@Chris:
Elementary was a great series! It took most of the first season to find its legs, with Joan Watson becoming more than a mere coat-holder for Sherlock, but after that it was consistently very good. You’ve got some great episodes ahead!
Spanky
@Spanky: And to go really old school on yinz guys, best show finale was The Prisoner.
Chris
@Steeplejack:
There are other schools of thought, but personally I’d say just watch in release order.
Ken
Figures, I go to run some errands and think of a great season finale, then come back and find we’ve been retconned to series finales. In which case I stand by my M*A*S*H nomination.
(The season finale? The “Aftershock” episode of Law and Order.)
UncleEbeneezer
@zhena gogolia: It’s so fucking good. So many iconic scenes and storylines. When it’s at its’ best it’s really hard to top. So many great twists, acting performances and the costumes are just incredible eye-candy. The last season is not the best but still very good. Truly one of my top series ever and very much re-watchable.
BruceFromOhio
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Loved that show! The premise was fun, and the conclusion most engaging.
dmsilev
@WaterGirl:
It’s a show in the Star Wars universe, set a few years before the events of the original film. The Empire is in charge of everything, the Rebellion is just beginning, and the show is all about how people navigate day by day existence in a totalitarian state, both just to survive and in some cases to resist.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: I figured you (and NotMax, who doesn’t seem to be around) would be available for comment on the pre-2000 universe.
VOR
I gave up on BSG at the end of season 3. By that point it was clear the creators had no idea what they were doing. Every episode opened with the show telling us the Cylons had a plan but it became apparent the show runners did not. There was some masterful stuff, like the couple episodes in early Season 3 where the humans were an insurgency – gave a lot of topical echoes of the then-ongoing Iraq conflict.
The Americans finale was heart-rending. Poor Paige.
I liked the ending of “Elementary”. I thought the Season 6 ending was a better series finale than Season 7, but when they offer you more money I can see why you take it.
Marc
This makes me feel very old, but no one is old enough to have seen the (1967) mini-series finale of The Prisoner? Patrick McGoohan plays an unnamed British agent (perhaps John Drake, from McGoohan’s previous series Danger Man aka Secret Agent) who angrily resigns from service, drives home (in his cool Lotus Super 7), gets dosed with sleeping gas, then wakes up in what we soon find out is The Village, where he is assigned Number Six by a Number Two (who’s a different person just about every episode). The Village is completely populated by numbered ex-agents from various countries, escape is apparently impossible. He spends his time alternating between various escape attempts and trying to determine the identity of Number One. The finale is, well, weird, but he does get to unmask Number One. I won’t spoil it.
This is one of three series I remember watching with my entire family during childhood, all on our black and white TVs. First The Flintstones (which was originally a prime time series), the second the original Star Trek (I vividly remember watching Balance of Terror for the first time).
zhena gogolia
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Those are clever! I can’t say I ever saw either of those, although I’ve seen many episodes of both shows.
BruceFromOhio
@dmsilev: I had that ep in the can for weeks because I did not want the end to be nigh. Just so blown away at what good television looks, sounds and feels like.
“I’d get up early every day and I’d fight these bastards!”
Epic.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
I never watched the show. Just knew it as the source of many great Internet meme jokes. It’s right up there with “white cat and Real Housewives woman snarling at each other.”
Marc
Oops, you beat me to it…
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: The music is also fantastic.
Uncle Cosmo
@West of the Rockies: Two words: BULL and SHIT. I saw at least a dozen proposals on fansites that would’ve made for better and more sensible finales than that “J.J. Abrams Continues To Phone It In” crap. He had zero clue what he was doing and it showed.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Steeplejack: they’re all over the map. the mandalorian and the book of boba fett as well as the new ahsoka show take place before the new trilogy but after return of the jedi. obi wan, the bad batch and andor take place before a new hope.
some of the earlier cg shows are top notch, like rebels and (certain seasons of) the clone wars. visions was interesting and intensely visual.
they’re mostly good. some people had a very negative response to obi-wan, which had its clumsy moments, but really the major issue was racism. there are some SERIOUS quality shortfalls in the book of boba fett. i have no idea what the hell happened with that show. (also, one super-pale, young mod girl on tatooine with possibly the galaxy’s most powerful sun block, like, SPF ten million.)
Chris
@dmsilev:
Abigail over at LGM has argued that it’s a quintessential Star Wars story in that it’s telling the exact same story as the original movie – a nobody from a fourth world backwater planet goes from “it isn’t any of my business” to being radicalized into violent rebellion once the oppressive authorities have pushed them too far. But Andor has an entire season of modern television to tell the story, and it doesn’t have the burden of needing to establish the entire setting, so it can afford to take its time and go into detail in telling the story.
Steeplejack
@Chris:
Thanks. Now I need to look up the release order!
West of the Rockies
@Chris:
Farscape was quite good.
dmsilev
@Steeplejack:
They’re mostly disconnected from each other, so order doesn’t matter much, The one exception that comes to mind is that the second half of Book of Boba Fett really should be titled Season 2.5 of The Mandalorian, so if you’re watching the latter make sure to insert those four or so ‘bonus’ episodes’ into the watchlist after S2.
Andor is probably the best of the bunch, followed by The Mandalorian. I didn’t really finish any of the others.
Steeplejack
@Ken:
That was a pretty heavy Law and Order episode!
Also (no spoiler from me), didn’t one of the main characters get killed at the end of Season 1? That wouldn’t have hit so hard then, but still.
ETA: One thing that the original Law and Order did very well was “valedictory” episodes when various characters left the show.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Marc: i have it on vhs. good goddamn, the prisoner was a great show.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Spanky @Marc
I have a work colleague who keeps a lava lamp in his cube. I was surprised to learn that he had not seen the Prisoner. Of course I recommended it to him. This reminds me I need to ask him whether he has watched it. Patrick McGoohan was a genius.
Chris
@Steeplejack:
I just realized I misunderstood your original post and thought you were asking what order to watch the Star Wars movies.
Don’t know if it matters so much with the series, but release order is as good as any.
TriassicSands
@Uncle Cosmo:
But, please, keep in mind that that is your opinion and not objective reality. People’s tastes vary greatly. One person’s Yugo is another person’s Porsche (though I do feel sorry for the Porsche “owner” if it really is a Yugo).
In this thread, I’ve seen people praise things I wouldn’t even watch, but it isn’t my business to tell them they are wrong. Disagreeing is fine, but it’s unlikely to change anyone’s opinion.
Gin & Tonic
@Spanky: There we go!
BruceFromOhio
@Steeplejack: This. Elementary was a fixture of the entertainment schedule while it was running. The chemistry took some time to evolve, once it did it was great. Makes me wonder what life was like on set during production.
Crimson Pimpernel
I feel as though someone should acknowledge the illustration you used for the post. I watched the finale of The Fugitive in real time. I had some logical issues with it but it was a satisfying ending. I don’t remember–does anyone else know if that was the first series finale intended to provide a resolution, or were there any others before it?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@BruceFromOhio: the Elementary DVD set has a lot of extra material including stories of its production. Definitely worth watching.
Chris
@strange visitor (from another planet):
It’s gotten really, really bad how much the racism distorts the online conversation around these movies (all movies and TV shows big enough to attract a buzz, really).
Like I was saying the other day, there are any number of these movies I really don’t like, but am instantly suspicious of anyone I read bashing them because so much of the online hate is alt-right screaming and trolling.
NotMax
Wow, so much swirling around inside the cranium. Let’s see (did not look at list). Besides the obvious choice of Newhart…
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Prisoner
Wild Boys [1}
Soap
The Almighty Johnsons [2]
M*A*S*H
Friday the 13th
St. Elsewhere
Wallander [3]
Laid [1]
Rumpole of the Bailey
Hjørdis [4]
Mr. Robot
Charlie Jade [5]
Deutschland 83/86/89 [6]
Good Grief
Dark [6]
Halt and Catch Fire
Iris [7]
Cheers
The Heavy Water War [8]
.
[1] Australia
[2] New Zealand
[3] Sweden
[4] Denmark
[5] Canada/South Africa
[6] Germany
[7] Korea
[8] Norway
TriassicSands
@HumboldtBlue:
Different shows have different life expectancies. The basis of Ted Lasso is pretty shaky to begin with. They worked it for two seasons, that I did see, and thought were quite good, though my least favorite character was Ted Lasso. After two years, he still didn’t seem to know much of anything about football (soccer). I don’t know what is planned, but I think it would be best to never have a fourth season. It might have been better if each of the first two seasons had added an episode or two and then brought it to a close at the end of Season 2.
TriassicSands
@UncleEbeneezer:
I think the odds against a series’ final season being its best are overwhelming. Every show has a life expectancy, some of which are limited by the original premise. But, usually, the reason they end shows feels like it’s because the show has run its course and the ideas have been exhausted. I’ll say it again, I think shows often run too long.
Chris
@TriassicSands:
Just finished Season 1.
It’s a good enough show that you mostly don’t care, but in terms of the basic premise, it did feel kind of egregious that it took most of a season for someone to knock it into Ted’s head that professional football isn’t high school football and that while the “I don’t measure success in winning or losing” approach is good for the latter, it’s completely inappropriate for the former.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Chris: yeah, there were strange choices made, definitely problems with the show, but moses ingram’s performance as reva was certainly not one of them.
PaulWartenberg
@Marc:
I was born after the Prisoner came out but I watched it and own one of the dvd sets. “Fallout” is a mind-blowing finale but a but overdone.
in my humble opinion the best series finale was the last episode of Heroes stand-alone season in 2008. There weren’t any other seasons after all, just that first one. THERE WAS ONLY ONE SEASON OF HEROES, GOT IT?!! Good.
Marc
I was really disappointed by the finale of Mr. Robot, it seemed like they were intending to do another season, but then had to tack on a quick and dirty ending. The series started off great, but eventually it lost its way.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
My first thought when I saw this thread was that I hated the M*A*S*H finale but figured it would be high on a lot of lists. But I gave up on the show long before the end. To me it got repetitive and bathetic, and “Alan Alda is a comedy god” grated on me. Yes, he was/is very talented, but that show became practically a shrine to him.
My 20th-century TV viewing was very spotty. I lived overseas from 1967-69, came back to three years of basically no TV in college and didn’t start watching again until the golden age of Mary Tyler Moore Productions in the early ’70s. Spent a lot of the ’80s and ’90s doing up-and-down career stuff and up-and-down relationship stuff, so I missed a lot of “appointment TV.”
The second Bob Newhart show’s ending was excellent, of course. I don’t remember a lot of other shows having formal “endings”—certainly not a lot of the ones I watched as a kid in the ’60s. They just went away.
As the blog’s resident Perry Mason expert, I will say that that series did have a formal ending, and it was a little sad. The entire last season (the ninth) was clearly on its last legs, despite a few good episodes. The last one, “The Case of the Final Fade-Out,” takes place on the set of a hit TV series. There is a lot of looking-behind-the-scenes stuff that must have been very interesting to a TV audience at the time, and the episode features actual crew members giving (very wooden) line readings basically playing themselves in the plot. Erle Stanley Gardner even makes a cameo appearance as a judge!
I was thinking that surely I should remember the ending of The Fugitive, but I checked IMDB and saw that the two-part finale was shown in August 1967, by which time I was sweating my balls off on Okinawa with very little current TV programming on AFRTS.
RSA
… as perfectly exemplified by the Happy Days phrase, “jump the shark.”
Marc
Nothing like that final episode had been on TV to that point, it may seem overdone now, but imagine seeing it for the first time during the 60s.
Steeplejack
@VOR:
I always think of Elementary in tandem with Person of Interest. They were current around the same time, I think, and I do remember trying to make an effort to keep up with both shows. But I really hated the final (downward) arc of Person of Interest to its apocalyptic ending. I find it very hard to watch reruns now, whereas I enjoy seeing Elementary again.
And, of course, its ending was very good—both of them.
NotMax
@Marc
This. It was mind-blowing (at the time).
Steeplejack
@strange visitor (from another planet):
Thanks. I’ll have to do some research to figure out what’s what. I just sort of vaguely knew there was a load of shows that I was not seeing.
tomtofa
Stoney Burke. 1963 (one season).
Jack Lord before Hawaii 5-O, Bruce Dern, Warren Oates.
Stoney is a rodeo rider competing on the circuit. The series was a typical 60s show – each episode in a different town, with a different dramatic plot and Stoney winning, getting closer and closer to the championship.
But the last episode is surreal. Stoney is injured so badly he has to drop out of the rodeo. He’s broke, his parents need money. A man named Richman wants to hire him to take 15 horses, including the one that injured him, to the glue/horsemeat factory. He takes the job.
On route they have to cross a river named Styx, with a ferryman named Charon. Stoney is separated from his friends and continues to drive the horses. His friends catch up, try to talk him out of what he’s doing; he beats them up.
But then he decides the horse, like the rest of the horses, just wants to live free, like he does, so he tells Richman the deal is off. Richman forcibly objects; Stoney beats him up. His friends put the horse that injured Stoney into Richman’s trailer, Stoney frees the rest of the horses, they steal the trailer and drive away. Stoney is going to keep the horse and use him to recover his health.
The end. Of the season and the series.
It messed with my young mind – this wasn’t how TV shows were supposed to be…
Steeplejack
@dmsilev:
Thanks. Will keep that in mind.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Marc: “here comes the judge, here comes the judge; don’t nobody buzz because here comes the judge…”
TriassicSands
@Chris:
There’s a lot to recommend the show, but hiring a football coach from the U.S. to coach a soccer (football) team in the UK is pretty ridiculous. Yes, a rationale is presented. But what seems to be missing is Ted having any interest in actually becoming a competent coach.
I agree about his attitude. It is very refreshing in a lot of ways, but the idea that it would “work” in professional sports is almost beyond fantasy and science fiction.
I do agree with an earlier comment about the relative quality of seasons 1-2 vs. 3. But, these days when seasons consist often of only eight episodes, getting through the 3rd season isn’t difficult. And, since tastes vary, you could even think it is the best.
Speaking of the number of episodes. When I was a kid, highly rated shows like Have Gun, Will Travel didn’t have eight episodes in a season. In the first three seasons there were 39 episodes (30 minutes each), seasons four and five had 38 episodes, and in its sixth season there were a mere 32 episodes. Back then, 30 minute episodes didn’t have 8-10 minutes of ads. The show starred Richard Boone, a generally well-respected actor
And, a much-mentioned show in this thread — Star Trek TNG had 25-26 episodes in a season.
Steeplejack
@Chris:
Thanks for clarifying! 😹 I have
suffered throughseen all of the Star Wars movies and do not need to revisit the majority of them.kalakal
How could I have forgotton The Prisoner? From what I understand it wasn’t McGoohan’s intention to end it that way, the plug got pulled on funding so he had to wrap it up fast.
A question. At around the same time as The Fugitive there was an Invasion of the Body Snatchers like series called The Invaders. I only ever saw the occasional episode, does anyone know how it ended? I never saw the final episode and am mildly curious
prostratedragon
@wrog: Also before 2001, the original series Twin Peaks; original Perry Mason had a good case which, since the crime occurred on a Hollywood movie set, had cameos for much of the crew.
prostratedragon
@kalakal: Oh how indeed?! “Now hear the word of the Lord.”
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
The Swedish Wallander had an excellent (downward) arc in its last season, as Kurt dealt with retirement and his health issues (no spoilers!). That was a great series in general—much better than the Kenneth Branagh one.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@prostratedragon: so many great number twos: Leo McKern, Patrick Cargill, Mary Morris…
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: I didn’t know that about Perry Mason!
zhena gogolia
@tomtofa: Man, you may be the only person in the WORLD who remembers that!
Llelldorin
@NotMax: Nothing made me sadder than when Mortimer followed his touching, brilliant finale to Rumpole with a bunch of additional stories that he wrote much later.
JoyceH
Wow, remember how BIG the M*A*S*H finale was? A Cultural Event. I was one of the first people in my group to have a VCR, so the following week I had a M*A*S*H Rehash Bash at my house, and everyone came over to watch it again. That was so novel in those days!
Ken
@kalakal: It’s been a while, but as I recall The Invaders didn’t have a series-ending wrap-up. They may not have known about the cancellation before finishing the last few episodes — that was pretty common at one point.
Steeplejack
@kalakal:
The Invaders is on MeTV, if your cable system has that—every Sunday at 5:00 a.m. Episode 1.4 coming up next Sunday. (It’s not available for streaming or purchase anywhere.)
If you want a clue to the ending, or if there was one, you can look at the IMDB thumbnail descriptions for the second season.
ETA: And there’s probably some fan site that covers it in excruciating detail.
tomtofa
@zhena gogolia: Well, me and Jack Lord. And he probably tried hard to forget it.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
My evening is complete!
zhena gogolia
@tomtofa: But I believe he’s no longer with us.
pajaro
@UncleEbeneezer:
I agree on the Americans. Paige getting off of the train was a killer moment.
The last episode of The Wire was very good, even if a bit sad. I liked the way it showed those who were able to keep their heads above water, as well as those who didn’t.
Maxim
Having just watched the series finale of Endeavour, I would put it on a list of well-done conclusions.
Steeplejack
@Maxim:
One of my binge goals for this month is to get caught up on Endeavour and see out the series. I’m a season or so behind.
Socolofi
@hilts: that was going to be mine. He lives… in his own personal Hell…
Citizen Scientist
@Maxim: Agreed! Sad to see it end, but that was a pretty good ending.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
ETA:
Which was irksome to me because it was an insult to a stellar ensemble cast.
Sister Golden Bear
@WaterGirl: Also worth noting that while Andor is set in the Star Wars universe it’s very un-Star Wars — no light sabers, no Jedi, no Force. Instead it’s a rather gritty political thriller, among many other things. (There’s three main sub-arcs, with several additional storylines that intertwine with the main arcs.)
Even if you’re not into Star Wars, like me, it’s sublime and definitely a must-see.
If you have seen Rogue One, that gives it an extra dimension, if you haven’t, it’s worth seeing after the series concludes after the upcoming second season, in order to see the protagonist’s full character arc.
Sister Golden Bear
Another best finale was the British version of Life on Mars, which maintained the main ambiguity through the ride into the sunset (even the director and lead actor still disagree on what the true ending was).
Juju
Very late to this as usual.
The Mary Tyler Moore show
Upstairs,Downstairs
Star Trek TNG
Unforgotten
a series that was good to mediocre to bad, but I watched the final episode because I had to see how it ended was the Leftovers, and it was way better than I ever thought it would be.
Butterflies
Star Trek Voyager
I’m probably forgetting some but that’s what I have.
rikyrah
I am of two minds about Mad Men. If they had stopped the final season that they split into two halves, ending it at the first half, I would have been perfectly happy.
The actual final episode, as years have gone by…
I really have grown to love it.
kalakal
@Sister Golden Bear:
Did you see Ashes to Ashes – the follow up to Life on Mars? The ending is superb. It explains both shows
JML
Probably a mostly dead thread, but I can’t help myself: this is my kind of topic.
The West Wing had a very strong finale, did a fine job wrapping things up for the main cast and made you a little wistful about wondering what might have happened with this (mostly) new group. A strong valedictory.
Hill Street Blues was also really great, moving life forward for a lot of different characters without cutting things off and returning to the classic device from the pilot of essentially wrapping things up with Travanti & Hamel in bed. And Buntz decked the Chief.
Person of Interest was pretty satisfying for me and felt like it was earned.
Star Trek shows have probably all tried a little too hard post TNG: BS9, Voyager, and Enterprise all tried too hard to do something big IMHO and it didn’t work as well. TNG did a better job of it, with an interesting mystery, callbacks to the show’s history that didn’t feel forced, and a proper send-off (to movies)
Magnum PI had a pretty great one (I’m still a huge fan of the original series. Tremendous use of voice-over)
BSG’s was awful; part one was very strong, and part two was another insult from a bunch of incompetent writers/producers. I’ll never forgive them for so clearly not understanding how to do a redemption arc. It’s also (much like Lost) a group that was always bound and determined to prove they were smarter than their own fanbase and unwilling to do the writing and plotting work to get to their desired ends. There’s some amazing stuff in BSG but they screwed up consistently.
Lost is almost funny with how angry it makes fans of the show. I don’t think they’re wrong: the finale isn’t good at all, and the later seasons prove they were lying when they kept saying they had a plan all along.
The Buffy finale is also fairly bad (as are the last few episodes leading up to it): Joss’ writing reverts back to the tone of when he had left the show, and ignores some significant character evolution and growth. Worse, it screws over the cast in favor of the star. Utter meh.
Miss Bianca
@Quiltingfool: Late to the party, but my favorite line from Justified was when Raylon’s boss described him as “our hillbilly whisperer.” Something about the way he delivered it just cracked me up *bad*.
Kdaug
@strange visitor (from another planet): agreed. Babylon 5 for the win.
WaterGirl
@strange visitor (from another planet): Thank you!
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Thank you!
WaterGirl
@Maxim: I didn’t realize this was the last season. Good to know before I start watching it.